


we'll be okay

by maketea



Series: the ways you said i love you [8]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Goodbyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maketea/pseuds/maketea
Summary: they can't bear for anything to change.adrien and marinette say their goodbyes before he moves to london.(prompt 8 = as an apology)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: the ways you said i love you [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667194
Comments: 48
Kudos: 219





	we'll be okay

Everyone else had said their goodbyes at school on Friday.

Adrien came around to open Nathalie’s door, hauled his suitcase out of the trunk, and as he waved goodbye to the Gorilla, saw the five people standing in front of the train station, waiting.

Kagami, Chloé, Alya, Nino…

And Marinette.

Adrien’s heart flirted with the boundary between palpitating and flatlining.

Of course, Chloé didn’t wait for him to approach them. In fact, she didn’t even wait until the Gorilla restarted the car engine, and bounded right up to him, flinging her arms around his neck and stretching onto her tiptoes to press her damp cheek against his.

“Adrikins!” But she didn’t exclaim it with her usual trill, her usual smile, her usual ponytail flick and hand on the hip. Chloé stayed clinging to him, and sniffed against his shoulder. “Those losers wouldn’t have come if it weren’t for me. It was my idea to see you off.”

He looked across her yellow jacket at the others. They were still waiting by the entrance.

Adrien chuckled, and patted her back. “I’m glad you could make it, Chlo.”

She released him when he let go of her to drag his suitcase, but still kept a hold on his free arm as they walked up to the station.

It was rare for Adrien to be glad to have Chloé stuck to his side. But today was a rare occasion — it wasn't every day you left for boarding school across the Channel.

They were all smiling, and Adrien smiled back, but they were lying to one another. Kagami's mouth was terse, Nino blinked back tears, Alya's brow was pinched, and Marinette wasn't looking at him.

( _ Please look up please let me see you please please please please— _ )

Kagami approached him first, hands clasped in front of her. “London, huh?”

He shrugged, pretending not to feel Chloé manicured nails sinking into his arm.

“Does your school offer fencing?”

Adrien shrugged again. “I didn’t really get the chance to check.”

Which, like the smiles, like the rounds of  _ congratulations _ his teary classmates offered on Friday, was a lie.

Adrien had plenty of chances to check. He just didn’t want to. 

Fondly, Kagami shook her head. “Don’t let yourself get rusty. I don’t want to embarrass you as soon as you get back.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m used to you beating me.” 

Kagami stared at Chloé until she stepped back. Then, she hugged Adrien, pressing a friendly kiss to his cheek. “Take care of yourself. And call Marinette every day.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “I will. Trust me, I will.”

She smiled, giving his back one last pat before giving way to Alya and Nino.

“We, uh—” Nino’s hand shot up to his face, raised his glasses, wiped at a small tear, and cleared his throat. Beside him, Alya slid her hand into the crook of his elbow. “We got you some photos. For your new room.”

Alya proffered a large brown envelope, his name written in handwriting unmistakably Marinette’s and punctuated by a heart.

(And two dried water droplets smudging the ink, like incomplete ellipses, but he didn’t want to think about where those came from.)

He took it, peered inside, and found it thick with glossy prints. The first one was his first picture with Ladybug, perhaps during his first month at Françoise Dupont. Adrien looked  _ terrible  _ — flushed and out of breath and wearing a goofy grin while Ladybug had her head tilted towards his cheek and smiled, a little giddily, at the camera.

(Of course, at the time Adrien thought she just felt awkward, but after Marinette reminisced on it the other week while she sat in his lap, he learned quickly that he made his lady blush far more than he would have ever believed.)

He would not look at Marinette.

He would not look at Marinette.

He would not look at Marinette.

Adrien looked at Marinette

She was watching them through her eyelashes, head still bowed, a trembling certainty in her grasp around the Tupperware box of macarons she had brought with her. Flushed, she turned when she noticed his regard. Adrien never thought there could be a day where it hurt to know he was the one that brought colour to her cheeks.

(Adrien never thought there could be a day where he would be leaving Paris. Not this soon, at least.)

“A lot of them are just pictures of all of us,” Alya said, “but we know how much you love Ladybug, so we added some of her, too.”

Adrien slipped the photograph back into the envelope, and in an impulsive step forward, grabbed both Alya and Nino and hugged them tight.

“Thank you,” he said between their heads. “I love them.”

He made the mistake of opening his eyes.

Through the space between Alya and Nino, Adrien had no choice but to see Marinette. Her hunched shoulders. That beautiful, painful flush. How she gulped like she did when she swallowed down her tears, how her eyes flickered as she thought, how she dipped her head lower so she could wipe her lashes in private.

Alya turned, too, letting go of Adrien. 

He knew what she saw, because if anyone loved Marinette as much as Adrien did, it was her.

“Do you want us to leave you guys alone?” she said quietly.

Adrien sucked in a breath. “Yeah… yeah, I’ll—I’ll talk to her inside.”

He said his last goodbyes — a fistbump to Nino, a smile at Alya, another hug for Kagami, and (upon her demand) an  _ extra long  _ hug for Chloé.

“You have to come visit me,” she said snappily and tearily on his collarbone, “or I’ll call Daddy and get someone to pick you up.”

“I will, Chloé. You know that.”

“Chloé, come on.” Alya’s hand appeared on her shoulder. 

Chloé shot her a venomous look. But realisation dawned on her, and she softened, letting Adrien go.

Yes, he was proud of her. So very proud, and he wanted to tell her, but there was something else he had to do.

The other four receded behind him. Marinette raised her head.

“Hey,” he whispered.

She smiled. The biggest liar of them all.

“You must be excited,” she said, still smiling, a smile so unnatural he worried it hurt. Marinette thrust the Tupperware towards him. “I baked macarons! All of these ones are passion fruit, but the ones here on the side are, like, a flavour roulette? In case you want to try something new on the train, but I guess you’re trying something new already because, you know,  _ London _ — that’s really exciting! I guess macarons aren’t really gonna help you much with settling in, or travelling, or school, but…”

He put his hands over hers around the Tupperware. “Hey,” he whispered again.

Marinette blinked. A tear rolled down her face. “Hey.”

They stared at each other, and Adrien wondered if that would be their only goodbye. Somehow he was okay with it, and somehow he also wasn’t. He had so much to say. He had nothing to say. But Marinette was finally, finally looking at him, and maybe that would be enough to get him through it all.

"Adrien, could you please do this inside? There are people trying to get by us."

Adrien looked over at Nathalie. She was standing by the automatic doors, keeping his other suitcase out of the way of the entrance.

"Sure. Sorry." 

He took Marinette in one hand and his luggage in another, and headed into the station. They made it to the ticket barriers before he stopped, parked the suitcase beside him, and turned back to face her.

She was already overcome by tears.

Silent as they were, as they almost always were with Marinette, they still came, moistening her lashes and catching onto her hair on their sojourn down her face.

Adrien let go of the handle. Carefully, he took the Tupperware from her, placed it on his suitcase, and clasped both her hands. She didn’t look at him.

“Hey,” he said again, and he would say it again and again if it meant she’d look at him one more time. “Hey, Marinette, don’t cry.”

She untangled her fingers to press the back of her wrist against her mouth. Marinette lowered her head more and more, until it almost pressed against his collarbone, and Adrien could feel the febrility of her face coming off her and into him.

“What am I gonna do without you?” she sobbed around her wrist. “I can’t— you can’t just  _ leave _ .”

A dispatcher blew into a whistle — long and shrill, preceding the hiss and chug of a departing train. Adrien pulled Marinette into his chest, and pressed his face into her hair.

“I’m not leaving,” he said once the noise died down. “Not forever, My Lady. I’ll always come back to you.”

She pulled back. The lights overhead shone on her glossy, sob-swollen face.

“But… London…”

“London can’t take me away from you.” He cupped her cheeks. “I come back every three weeks, anyway. Exeats, school breaks...”

Marinette nodded. And nodded. And nodded. But her eyes were on the gargantuan suitcase beside them, and Adrien knew he wasn’t making it any better.

“Three weeks isn’t that long,” he said softly.

Another tear fell across her flush. “You think it isn’t long?”

Adrien closed his eyes, and took in a deep, deep breath.

Three weeks without Marinette would kill him.

Because it wasn’t just about good mornings, and sharing lunch, and patrol laughter, it was wondering how long it would take for Marinette to replace those traditions with something else. Something better. Something she would realise she liked much, much more.

It was wondering whether Marinette could still love him without all of that. Whether she might fall out of love bit by bit, three weeks at a time, until he reached out to her and realised she wasn’t reaching back.

She felt her hand wipe his cheek. 

He had started crying, too.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to upset you just before you left.”

Adrien shook his head. He wept, and he chuckled, and rubbed at his eye sheepishly while Marinette kept her palm on his cheek. “You didn’t upset me. I was thinking about the time you pushed me off the Eiffel Tower.”

Marinette laughed tearily. “Really?”

His grin leaked off his mouth. Adrien shook his head.

“Can you promise me something?” he asked.

She nodded, tightening her hands on his.

“If… if things change between us…” He looked away when her expression began crumbling. “If… if your feelings for me change… could you tell me? Right away?”

Marinette stared at him with eyes veined like marble. “Adrien…”

“I’m not telling you to love me forever.” He swallowed, lowering his forehead to hers, and kissed the back of her hand with his salty lips. “But if you stop loving me… please tell me.”

She was sobbing again, harder than before, her nails digging into his knuckles. “How could you even say that?”

“Because—because I’ll be gone for so long, and things are gonna change, and—”

“You think I could ever stop loving you? You think it’s that easy? How dare you?”

Adrien pursed his lips, and looked over at the ticket barriers.

“You think I’m not gonna spend every night wishing you’d come over and fall asleep with me? You think I’m not gonna spend every day wishing to  _ God  _ I could just hear your voice? You think I’m not gonna wonder whether you found someone better than me, and—” She let out a harried gasp, and snatched her hands away from him. Marinette whirled around from him, and hunched over, head in her hands as she cried.

For a moment, he did nothing but watch her. His arms were stuck, unable to reach for her with the same ease as they usually did. Instead he approached her, and placed his chin on her shoulder. 

She didn't move away. Marinette even pulled her wet hands from his face and turned her head so her cheek almost pressed his.

"Will we be okay?" she whispered.

Adrien nodded. "We'll be okay."

Her smile was watery, and she couldn't meet his eyes. 

"I'm sorry for getting mad," she said, playing with her fingers. "I just… you're going, and…"

"Sssh." Adrien took her by the shoulders, and, gently, turned her. "I know."

Marinette was wilting with her tears, all red nose and red lips and wet lashes that gave way to her wobbly gaze. Still, Adrien bent his head, took her in, and kissed her.

"I love you," he said softly.

And although he wouldn't be staying for long, she wrapped her arms around him. "I love you, too."

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: maketca  
> tumblr: rosekasa


End file.
